Australia's star batter, Steve Smith, missed his first Test of the three-match Test series against the West Indies due to a compound dislocation of his finger.
The 36-year-old had suffered the injury during the World Test Championship final against South Africa when a catch off Temba Bavuma's edge flew towards him while he was standing in the slip — closer than usual.
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After Josh Inglis' 5 & 12 while batting at 4 in Barbados, head coach Andrew McDonald has provided a positive update over Smith's availability in the Grenada Test, a day after captain Pat Cummins confirmed his return to training.
Check out what McDonlad had to say.
Will Steve Smith play WI vs AUS 2nd Test?
Speaking about how Smith's injury is healing after missing the previous Test, McDonald said that they will be assessing the functionality of his finger and not risk the long-term health of the player's finger.
Notably, Australia also has a cutthroat Ashes series lineup up for the end of the year and Smith being present would be of utmost priority.
"It's really about functionality around the finger rather than anything else. There'll be no risk to long-term health of that finger. He'll return and I think it's likely he'll play. Leading into the next game, he'll have the main session two days out," said McDonald.
The coach further confirmed that Smith, continuing at 4, should he play the Test, while Inglis might lose his spot in the XI.
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He explained why they do not want to experiment too much with Smith's position after the batter opened the batting and also played at 3 in recent times.
"He'll [also] train the day before [the match]. If that all goes well, then I'd expect Steve to resume at No. 4. We want to keep him [Smith] at four and build around that rather than potentially risking too many moves in the order," he added.
"In terms of why we see him as No. 4, I think we've settled on that. We could slide him up higher if we wanted to. He's been excellent at number three. But I think if you look at the last 12 months at No. 4 and his ability to stabilise that position, two down, arguably our greatest batter, we want to keep him at four and build around that rather than potentially risking too many moves in the order," he concluded.
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Australia started their WTC 2025-27 campaign on a high note with a big win over the WI earlier in the week, despite struggling a bit with the bat to go at the top of the points table.
Up next, they will face the hosts at St. George's from July 3, and the final Test will be played at Kingston, which will be a day-night game.